Treasure Planet – Blu-ray Disc Review

July 2, 2012 – 10:14 pm - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: Austin Majors, Brian Murray, Corey Burton, David Hyde Pierce, Disney, Emma Thompson, John Musker, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Laurie Metcalf, Martin Short, Michael McShane, Patrick McGoohan, Ron Clements, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

has an average rating of 6.7 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include all the original DVD content
–
– 2002
– 95 minutes
– Disney
–
This uses 23.0GB for the movie out of 30.6GB total.
Street Date: July 3rd, 2012

Overall Verdict – An OK Film / Awesome Quality

Buy it on Blu-ray for $19.96 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is a retelling of the novel “Treasure Island” written by Robert Louis Stevenson. “Treasure Planet” was co-wrote and co-directed by Ron Clements & John Musker best known for directing the other Disney animated films such as “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986), “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Aladdin” (1992), “Hercules” (1997) and most recently “The Princess Frog” (2009).

This retelling or re-imagined version of the original “Treasure Island” story is set in outer space instead of on the high seas. Ships are still part of the story though they are solar powered space ships of sorts. Pirates obviously exist here in this version but they’re mostly aliens or cyborgs and humans. Humans are part of the mix, in fact our main character “Jim Hawkins” (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a human and obviously so is his mother “Sarah Hawkins” (voiced by Laurie Metcalf). However they seem to be really the only humans we find in this tale; aside from Jim’s father who abandoned him and his mother at an early age. When we’re first introduced to Jim he’s just three-years-old in age (at that point voiced by Austin Majors) reading, or rather watching, a bedtime story about an infamous pirate “Captain Flint” who left a very large amount of treasure buried on “Treasure Planet” — hence the film’s name — that his mother tells him is just the talk of legend and not real. All throughout the next twelve years of Jim’s life he’s still been obsessed with this story and despite what his mother tells him believes the place and treasure to be real. Jim as a teenager is a bit of a rebel with his “solar surfing” and manages to get in trouble with the law. As a result one day two robot police officers bring him home to his mother, who’s less than pleased. His mother runs an inn that is frequented by a dog-like scientist by the name of “Doctor Doppler” (voiced by David Hyde Pierce). Doctor Doppler tries to be a father figure of sorts doing his best to defend Jim when the police bring him home to his mother. After the two robot police officers leave Jim is told to go about his chores at the inn.

Once Jim is done with his chores he relaxes and reflects on his situation by sitting outside watching the stars and whatnot when all of the sudden he sees a space ship come crashing down. Jim rushes to see if the pilot is OK and discovers it to be an alien by the name of “Billy Bones” (voiced by Patrick McGoohan). Billy Bones is extremely injured and slowly dying but he manages to give Jim a strange sphere object and warns him to beware of the cyborg. At this point he has no clue what the object he’s been given is for or what the warning meant. It’s not long after this that a gang of pirates show up and manage to burn Jim’s mother’s inn to the ground. He, his mother an Doctor Doppler manage to escape. They retreat to Doctor Doppler’s home where after some time Jim discovers that the sphere is actually a holographic map that leads to the legendary Treasure Planet. His mother insists still this is only the talk of legend but at this point even Doctor Doppler is wanting to be involved in an expedition to find the treasure. Jim and Doctor Doppler explain to Sarah that if they find the treasure they’ll be able to rebuild her inn and be set financially for life. So with the help of Doctor Doppler and consent from his mother Jim set off to find themselves a crew to go find the treasure. The crew then end up finding isn’t exactly what Jim had expected. The ship’s captain is a female cat-like creature named “Captain Amelia” (voiced by Emma Thompson) with a large first mate made of rock by the name of “Mr. Arrow” (voiced by Roscoe Lee Browne). The rest of the ship’s crew are some very shady alien creatures, a cook that is half-cyborg by the name of “John Silver” (voiced by Brian Murray) and his little sidekick of sorts named “Morph” (voiced by Dane A. Davis).

Jim sees the half-cyborg cook and immediately remembers the words of warning to “beware the cyborg” that the late Billy Bones said before his passing. Little does he know he’s right, that half-cyborg has planned with the other shady members of the crew to try to commit mutiny once they’ve arrived to their destination (“Treasure Planet“). Once he’s committed mutiny John Silver plans to steal the treasure for himself. Meanwhile, the captain orders that Jim be the cabin boy and serve under none other than John Silver. Despite Jim’s weary nature towards Silver and Silver’s plans, the two actually become friends. The cook realizes that the boy has had no father figure in his life and feels sorry for him and so that sets up the main plot to the film. Some interesting things happen along the way as you’d expect in their search for the treasure.

There’s some other nice supporting voice talent here from folks such as Tony Jay (narrator), Corey Burton (“Onus“), Michael McShane (“Hands“) and Martin Short (“B.E.N.“).

“Treasure Planet” proves to be a pretty enjoyable little flick but by far is not one of the better animated films that the studio has released, nor by any means the best, or even better, that co-directors Ron Clements & Jon Musker have been involved with. Sure, it had its share of cool visuals thanks to the 3D computer animated ships and whatnot as well as some decent vocal performances but really seemed to lack originality or memorable characters. That is because it was nothing more than a retelling of a story that has been told countless times over and over since it was originally written back in 1883. The science fiction elements added in proved to be a bit interesting at first but in the end just were nothing more than a bit silly at times. Plus, it’s not like Disney themselves as a studio hadn’t already tried their hand at telling the story as they’d released a live-action adaptation of it back in 1950 — as seen HERE on IMDb. That live-action adaptation from 1950 proved to be much more memorable.

An interesting note here, this was the first major motion picture to be both released theatrically and in IMAX theaters simultaneously as you can read a tad bit about HERE on Wikipedia. The film was nominated for an Academy Award (“Oscar“) for “Best Animated Feature Film” in 2002. Sadly, the film was a financial failure of sorts for the studio. It had a budget of 140 million dollars and only ended up grossing 109 million in worldwide box office sales — according to Box Office Mojo. While not one of my personal favorite Disney animated films, nor many other people’s for that matter, it still proves to be something that should be seen at least once if you’re a fan of Disney animation.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Because of this aspect ratio you’ll see tiny black bars (pillars) on the sides. The reason behind this aspect ratio choice seems to be something to do with the fact that this was first feature film simultaneously released in both regular and IMAX theaters where it was displayed in a 1.50:1 aspect ratio — as stated in the technical specifications and trivia on IMDb. As you’ll read in the technical specifications this was originally intended for a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Regardless this come to Blu-ray in the aspect ratio that it was originally shown in traditional theaters.

The amount of computer animation here results in a large amount of “3D pop” from the very opening scene of the film up until the very end before the closing credits. There’s a very nice blend here of both traditional hand drawn 2D animation and CG (computer generated) 3D animation. As a result this film has a very unique visual style to it. The 3D computer generated sets (backdrops) at times almost will remind you of the ballroom sequence in “Beauty and the Beast” but come across throughout almost the entire film with an excellent amount of depth. CG animated 3D objects such as the cyborg arm of “John Silver” or the character “B.E.N.” look really impressive and blend perfectly with the 2D hand drawn characters such as our lead character. The color palette is very vibrant at times despite the darker setting of outer space. There’s some really colorful costumes, backdrops and characters to be found here throughout the film. The presentation is very pristine just as you’d expect and have seen on all previous animated films from Disney that have come to the Blu-ray format. The black level is very solid and helps to emphasize the outlines, shading and lighting conditions.

There’s an abundance of detail here and the sights prove to be very pleasing in Hi-Def. It should come as no surprise that this earns itself a perfect “5 Star Rating” for overall video quality. I’d like to note for owners of 3D HDTVs that you might want to try the 2D to 3D conversion if your display supports it as this really translates nicely to 3D. Perhaps Disney will someday do a post-production 2D to 3D conversion themselves and release it to Blu-ray 3D. However, given how this wasn’t the biggest success of a film I’d say that is unlikely but still would look cool none-the-less if it were done. In closing, in regards to video quality, it’s safe to say this is by far the best the film has looked since back in 2002 when it was shown in IMAX theaters.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The film starts out with some excellent opening narration (by Tony Jay) being delivered through the center channel and the original music from James Newton Howard‘s Score as well as sound effects getting a nice amount of presence in the other five channels — namely rears and LFE (bass). The opening fight between pirates has some impressive sound effects and is just a taste of that to come later in the film. Once the story bit is over you’ll get the first bits of dialogue which are delivered perfectly through the center channel. Dialogue here is distinct and never once will be overpowered by either sound effects or music throughout the film. There’s going to be some real impressive audio sequences here along the way that I can’t really get into detail about without dishing out “spoilers”, however let’s just say it’s a tad bit intense at times. The song “I’m Still Here (Jim’s Theme)” as performed by John Rzeznik done specially for the film sounds pretty good and has a nice amount of rear channel and LFE presence. There’s a very impressive lossless 5.1 mix found here and it does the film justice. That being said this earns itself a “4.5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. Fans will definitely be pleased with how this sounds.

Bonus Materials on this release are ALL presented in standard definition (SD) video quality with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo @320kbps sound.

• “Introduction by Laurie Metcalf” (0:57 – SD) has the actress that did the voice for Jim’s mother “Sarah Hawkins” hosting you through the bonus materials on locations at the Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
• “R.L.S. Legacy: Virtual 3D Tour” includes:
– “Technical Tour” (9:29 – SD) narrated by the artistic coordinator
– “Nautical Tour” (7:40 – SD) narrated by the production designer
• “DisneyPedia: The Life of a Pirate Revealed” (12:13 – SD) is split up into six parts: “Pirate Definitions”, “Pirate Flags”, “Real Pirates”, “Code of Conduct”, “Pirate Ships” & “Treasure: Lost and Found” and seems to be narrated by Austin Majors that voiced the young “Jim Hawkins” in the film. I could be wrong on that but it sure sounds like him; obviously perhaps a bit grown up.
• “Disney’s Animation Magic: Hosted by Roy Disney” (14:18 – SD) gives us a “private guided tour” of the Disney Animation Studios where the film was created. They’ll show us how they used the original 2D hand drawn animation from the old Disney film “Peter Pan” to try to do their initial tests blending CG 3D animation by attaching the cyborg arm that “John Silver” has in the film to “Captain Hook” from the other film. This proves to be pretty weird but cool none-the-less. Speaking of blending, you’ll learn how much effort they put into trying to make that 2D hand drawn animation blend with the new (at that time) state-of-the-art computer generated (CG) 3D animation. You’ll also get some interesting facts thrown your way like how this was the first film the studio ever used sculptures (moquettes) that included traditional hand sculpted materials and computer generated and created physical parts — like the cyborg arm. Some storyboards are shown here as well as an unfinished rough deleted scene that is introduced by the directors. NOTE: This scene appears later in another featurette listed below.
• Deleted Scenes (6:33 – SD) includes an introduction by Laurie Metcalf as well as the directors John Musker & Ron Clements with a total of three scenes. One of those scenes is the scene featured at the end of the featurette above. Keep in mind that all three of these scenes are in rough unfinished animation.
• “Story” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (1:01 – SD)
– “I’m Still Here (Jim’s Theme)” Music Video performed by John Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls (4:13 – SD)
• “Art Design” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (0:48 – SD)
– “The Bandywine School” (2:24 – SD)
– “The 70/30 Law” (1:39 – SD)
• “The Characters” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (0:59 – SD)
– “John Silver: The “Hook” Test” (1:00 – SD)
– “John Silver: Silver Arm Test” (0:37 – SD)
– “B.E.N.: Introduction by Laurie Metcalf” (0:48 – SD)
– “B.E.N.: 3D Character/2D World” (1:05 – SD)
– “Maquettes” (3:11 – SD)
• “Animation” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (1:13 – SD)
– “Delbert Doppler” (1:09 – SD)
– “Silver Progression Animation” (2:25 – SD)
– “Pencil Animation: Amelia‘s Cabin” (2:10 – SD)
– “Rough Animation to Final Film Comparison” (1:38 – SD)
• “Dimensional Staging” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (1:08 – SD)
– “Effects Animation” (1:19 – SD)
– “Pose Camera” (1:42 – SD)
– “Layout Demonstrations” (1:23 – SD)
– “Treasure Planet Found” (2:08 – SD)
– “Lighting” (1:12 – SD)
• “Release” includes:
– Introduction by Laurie Metcalf (0:35 – SD)
– Teaser Trailer (1:24 – SD)
– Theatrical Trailer (2:22 – SD)
• A DVD of the film in standard definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is included. The DVD contains almost all, if not all, of the bonus materials listed above just is organized a lot differently.

Overall the bonus materials here are nothing more than just the original DVD supplemental materials “ported” over and all presented in standard definition with no new content. However, they still prove to be informative, educational and entertaining for those who have never seen them on the previous DVD release. It would have been nice to have seen a new retrospective featurette made for this 10th anniversary edition but perhaps that will happen in 5 years when another significant anniversary comes along.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Please be patient with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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